


An English Philomel

by the_alchemist



Category: Elizabeth Parker's Sampler
Genre: Gen, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Non-Graphic Violence, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 10:21:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2808923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_alchemist/pseuds/the_alchemist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Elizabeth Parker's sampler were not only a record of suffering, but also an instrument of revenge?</p>
            </blockquote>





	An English Philomel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Deepdarkwaters](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deepdarkwaters/gifts).



Mrs G took the parcel to her room, snipped the string with her grape scissors, unfolded the brown paper and found, wrapped in an embroidered cloth, a copy of _Ovid’s Metamorphoses_. There was a bookmark at ‘The Rape of Philomel’: a horrible story, one that had given Mrs G nightmares as a child. Then, she hadn’t understood what had happened to Philomel, other than having her tongue torn out so that the unspeakable crime against her would be literally unspeakable, but her marriage had soon taught her the truth of it.

_As I cannot write ..._

Philomel could neither write nor speak, but she could sew, and that was her weapon. In a million tiny stitches, she patiently depicted what had happened to her, and the face of the man who did it. When this exquisite, horrible thing was complete, she sent it to his wife, who completed a bloody revenge.

_As I cannot write I put this down simply and freely as I might speak to a person to whose intimacy and tenderness I can fully intrust myself and who I know will bear with all my weaknesses ..._

Mrs G forced herself to read every word of the embroidered cloth, each one picked out in tiny red crosses, with a perfection that made the raw outflowing of the poor girl’s afflicted heart and mind more terrible.

_... For with shame I own I returned to thee O God because I had nowhere else to go How can such repentance as mine be sincere What will become of my soul_

She held it for a moment to her bosom, tears running down her cheeks.

God forgive _me_ , she thought. God knows I knew his character better than anyone, God knows I understood – if only I’d been thinking – what it was to leave a young girl alone with him. After all, on our wedding night I’d been little more than a child myself.

Her eyes alighted on the grape scissors. Lieutenant G was asleep, dead drunk, and if they weren’t long enough to find his brain through his eye sockets, there was always his pistol ...


End file.
